The time is nearly here. Almost everything I have is boxed up for the trip across country. It will be difficult for me to keep you updated along the way. I’m not sure what Internet connection I’ll have – if any. I also am not sure if I’ll have any down time.
I feel I owe you a little explanation on why I might not post as much. In exchange, you notice the first image of the blog. I plan to add more of them going forward. If I wasn’t so aptly named, maybe I’d go back and do them for prior posts.
You’d think it would be easy to find a job in Silicon Valley for an engineer with 7-8 years of experience. Every recruiter (and there have been 40-50) says that it shouldn’t be a problem. Yet, I haven’t gotten any offers and they don’t seem to be coming back to me as much as they did just a couple of weeks ago.
Fate may have stepped in when Lifehacker (one of my favorite blogs) pointed me in the direction of an article on How to Get a Silicon Valley job. You can’t get too much more specific or timely than that. The first recommendation is to seek out the companies you like and apply to them. Interestingly, I had sent out an e-mail like that the day before and got a response back really quickly. I’m not used to working for companies that care if their employees use the product – it just makes too much good sense.
Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to write, but I’ve been on a tour interviewing for jobs in California. I picked up a guide to the real estate today and it was really an eye opener. Anything more than a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom place was 1M+. I can see why mortgage companies are coming out with 40 and 50 year fixed mortgages. It’s really a necessity for them to do business. Without them, it would be near impossible to pay the monthly payments on a typical salary. I’m not even sure I can get by on the increased salary. It will be an adventure either way.
It seems like there are no major stumbling blocks with the potential move. I still have yet to get a job, but they seem very plentiful. I’m not as sad I might be to leave my current job. I’ve put in nearly two and half years building the company from scratch as one of the first employees. In the software world, that’s nearly a lifetime. On Friday, the company really showed me where I belonged. I was grouped with a few developers that were less experienced and lacked the communication skills necessary to deal with our clients (as I do on a daily basis). Meanwhile people that were employed after me had fresh new job titles that suggested they were more senior.
I apologize that this blog is getting a little focused on the move to San Francisco. However, it’s a decision that dominates your life when the furthest you’ve been from home is 10 miles. I will get into some of the real estate choices we’ll have to make soon.
My fiancee has gotten the position in San Francisco. It’s a huge promotion for her and will mean more money for us (provided that I can find a software engineering job in the software engineering capital of the world). I’m sure that sounds like I’m justifying it, but it could mean a great promotion for me as well. If I had to choose, I wouldn’t be moving, so I have to get that out in the open. Given that the plan is to be out there for 2 years and then get back to Boston, I think I can deal with it.